How to Start A Social Media Program by Serena Ehrlich for PRSA Los Angeles

Welcome to Social Media… Now what?

Easy steps to creating a viable social media program



Agenda

• • • • • • • • • • • • What is Social Media Strategy and Goals Shhh! Listen to this! Setting your baseline: Measurement Where to begin Creating content Joining the party Promoting your social media platforms How to grow your audiences Finding new places to play Case studies Showcase your success: Measurement



What is Social Media

• What is social media – A natural extension of many of your current in-house departments – Customer interaction on steroids – 24/7: Social media is continuous – Innovative yet not new

• Old school guerilla marketing now online



– Prevalent

• Lower barriers of entry for companies • Higher customer expectations



– Successful

• Shown to increase company visibility • Shown to increase revenues



– Not going away….. As long as consumers interact online, there will be PR opportunities – Expected



What Social Media is Not

• • • • • • • • • Cheap Easy Viral One way news broadcast platform Text only Non-responsive Perfect Static ….Undoable



Setting Strategy & Goals

• • • • • • • • • • Visibility Message permeations Product development Information gathering Increased website traffic Reputation management Email/information capture Increased sales In-store/foot traffic… (hardest of all) …….Options are limitless



Getting Started: Shhhh!

• Where are people talking?

– Yelp? TripAdvisor? Flickr?



• What are people saying?

– Competitive intel – Unfiltered feedback – Industry rumors



• Sentiment search • Don’t forget to read blog comments • Tip: Use this information to create outbound discussion topics!



Getting Started: Measurement

Your objectives will determine what to measure:

Creating relationships? Messaging? Sales? Info Gathering? Website Traffic: # of interactions, retweets Track increase # of conversations Website traffic, sales leads Info received Use Google Analytics



Getting Started: Reserve Your Name

• 100+ social media sites/networks across the web • Easy registration services:

– Knowem – Namechk – User Name Check



• Two benefits:

– Easy for customers to find you – Protects your brand reputation



Creating Content

• Content is king: People ingest information in various manners so why not create content for each audience

– Text: A great way to share additional details about your company

• Blogs • Microblogs



– Multimedia: Boost your stories by adding relevant, catchy information

• Photos • Video • Audio



– Social Network: Repurpose your information to create network specific content ensuring maximum success



Joining the Party

• • • • • • Don’t just broadcast your message Listen to feedback Respond to feedback Tweak messaging based on feedback Give your audience something to do! Are you measuring yet?



Promote Your Social Media!

• Include your social network addresses:

– Front page of website – Contact us page of website – Email signature files of all employees – All marketing materials – Press releases:

• Including links to multimedia • Links to additional textual information • Links to supporting industry articles



Grow Your Audience

• Once you have your program established, grow it!

– Creative marketing ideas

• Skittles • Blogger discounts



– Partnerships:

• Startups with similar target audiences/themes

– 43things.com – Whrrl.com: Tell your story through photography



• Fan Groups



Don’t Forget to Measure

• How to measure:

– Use online, free websites

• Peoplebrowr.com • Socialmention.com • Google Comprehensive News Alerts



– Sentiment search: Search for adjectives: Good, bad, happy, unhappy – ROI by time: What time of day yields best results? – Use URL abbreviators to see which yield most clicks



Making Mistakes

Everyone makes mistakes Not every program works Guess how long it took Dell to perfect is SM program? What do you do about it Assess the situation/impact: – Size of site – Audience – Site visibility – Site tone • Determine response – Update your blog with correct industry knowledge – Outreach publically – Outreach privately – Know when to shut up • • • • •



Case Studies

• Yoplait offered coupons in exchange for address capture.

– Exceptional coupon redemption – Identification of raving fans



• Rancho Bernardo Inn launched a Survivor Room Rate via Twitter:

– Sold 750+ rooms in 10 days – Over 9000 on and offline mentions – 700 new Twitter followers



• Marriott gave 25 free trips to Hawaii via Marriotthawaiitweets

– 500K on and offline mentions – 5,600 twitter followers



CONFIDENTIAL



Questions?

Contact Me



Serena Ehrlich 214-924-4181 serena@startuparmy.com www.twitter.com/serena www.facebook.com/serena.ehrlich